This is the first publication of William Spettigue’s ‘Escaping Chas’, a tragicomedy in sixty-six poems, presented here with a collection of earlier poems published in 1972 under the title ‘Sliding Scale’.
The print run of this limited edition, published 27th March 2019, consists of two hundred and fifty numbered books. We have included two pieces of work. Escaping Chas, a tragicomic novel in sixty-six poems written between 1980 and 2010, tells of a group of teenagers growing up post-WW2 in the closed society of an English boarding school whose hierarchies they exploit for personal advan- tage.
Sliding Scale is a collection of nineteen earlier poems put together by William himself and first published in 1972.
From the Foreword by Markus Zohner:
Society must only be happy about its outcasts. Especially to be happy about the poet who refuses to accept its so-called values, because he, and only he is the true alchemist. By standing aside, he can see. By keeping himself apart, he creates time and space for being able to continue his work made of secret procedures only known to himself, and finally to having the conditions to succeed in transform- ing life’s lead and coal into real gold, into a precious piece fabricated from noble metal. Give him coal, give him lead, give him time and space, and he will, eventually, hand you over a golden bowl filled to overflowing with gemstones of all kinds.
Title: Escaping Chas and earlier Poems
Author: William Spettigue
Published by: Petruska Editions Lugano / Switzerland
Year: 2019
Listen to William Spettigue: Seven Questions about Life and about Death:
https://soundcloud.com/zohnerarts/william-spettigue-seven-questions-28-08-2014-felixstowe/s-ywHJz
ISBN: 978-8-890-45600-8
